DIVINE INTERVENTION
Deborah Kelly is squinting at her phone. “I just received some new work from my animator,” says the Australian artist. “Do you want to come and take a look?” She hits play and the screen erupts with colour as Kelly’s collages – tiny nymph-like creatures she’s cut up and pieced together using old encyclopaedias and, not insignificantly, books on ‘the history of white male art’ – twirl and tango to the spellbinding tune of a piano scale. When the music stops, there is a childlike twinkle of excitement in Kelly’s eyes. “We’re the first people to see it,” she grins. “What do you think?”
If it seems unusual that an artist who’s exhibited all over the world would share this sneak peek with someone she’s never met, let alone ask for an opinion, it sort of is. But collaboration is, a queer, insurrectionary science-fiction, climate change religion she is hoping to have registered. The work is currently on display at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art as part of . The animation will form part of the second phase of , which was installed at the MCA this month.
